Royal City down to one water well

ROYAL CITY – The city of Royal City has only one functioning well for providing potable water to its residents.

The city has been struggling with decisions on well No. 1 problems for some time. Now well No. 3 is down.

Well No. 4, which was drilled to replace well No. 2 when it was shut down, is the lone well providing water.

When the pump in well No. 3 stopped functioning earlier in September, Mayor Kent Andersen scheduled an emergecny special meeting of the city council on Sept. 15.

“We had to move fast. We had only one well left,” Public Works Director John Lasen said.

The council did work fast. It declared an emergency. It authorized Andersen to secure a contract for repair as soon as possible.

According to Finance Director Greg Pike, the city accepted proposals from three contractors and chose Blue Star Enterprises Northwest of Richland.

Blue Star went to work almost immediately. According to Rob Dobush of Blue Star, the pump has been taken out and is on its way to another company for evaluation of the pump, its parts and the cost of repair.

In addition to that cost, the city will have to pay Blue Star for deinstallation and reinstallation. Pike said no one knows for sure what the total cost will be. There was an original total figure of $78,000, but he’s not sure that will be it.

“We went with (Blue Star) because they could come in the fastest,” Pike said.

The emergency work ran into another problem while Blue Star was pulling the pump. The pump column broke off at a weak point and slipped down into the well.

The pump column is a pipe that connects the motor on top of the well to the pump inside. There is a shaft through it that drives the pump, and the pumped water comes up through the same pipe into the city’s delivery system.

According to Lasen, the column is made of numerous 10-foot lengths of pipe. The water level in the 900-foot well is about 400 feet.

Blue Star personnel were able to take out 24 lenghts. The 25th coupling was compromised, and the rest of the column fell. Blue Star had to fashion a fishing tool and finally removed the rest of the column on Sept. 28.

There is no problem with the water, Lasen said. As soon as the pump can be repaired or replaced, well No. 3 will be back on line.

Meanwhile, Lasen said, the city has a plan of action in place for the rehabilitation of well No. 1. It will be the backup well for whenever another problem like the one at well No. 3 occurs.